


There's a reason they failed.

by cadONK



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Child Abuse, Eating Disorder, Past Abuse, Suicide, Wilbur Soot has an Eating Disorder, soft chapter turned bad, uh oh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:08:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29214663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cadONK/pseuds/cadONK
Summary: In which Tommyinnit and Wilbur Soot meet under terrible circumstances, and have to make it work. Read tags.
Relationships: Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit
Comments: 10
Kudos: 103





	1. London puts barriers on the tube line.

This was it. This was the last time Wilbur Soot would see these damned tracks.

Wilbur didn’t bother checking the clock before he left. It was daytime, and that’s all he needed to know. He walked down the sidewalk, eyes on the grey pavement. Then up to the grey sky and around at the grey buildings…

He hated London. He hated London so much. But he didn’t have anywhere else to go. His eyes went back to the ground. His body was shaking. He felt sick.

He had his guitar in its case on his back and a note crumpled in his hands. He was going to end this. Today. He’d marked the date on his calendar and given away just about everything he owned, other than the bare essentials.

He felt so many emotions, too many to handle anymore. He needed this to end. He needed some sort of release from all of this.

He’d taken up a few coping mechanisms, none of which were healthy for him. None of which actually helped. But they felt like they did, so it was fine. His health didn’t matter since he’d be gone soon.

He started walking faster, making his breathing quicken so he could get to the station faster. He didn’t want to be outside anymore. He didn’t want to be anywhere.

He wanted to disappear forever.

He had to stop though, his breathing getting heavy and body starting to hurt. “A-aheh… fuck…” He recognized this, it was painfully familiar, the way his throat tightened and he started coughing this horrible, phlegmy cough. He leaned on a building’s wall on his shoulder, forcing himself to calm down. He didn’t have an inhaler- they were too high in demand for someone like him to have one. He felt like something was sitting on his chest.

Nobody stopped to help him. No one even batted an eye. He forced himself to breath slowly.

He finally calmed down after a few minutes, coughing up a loogie and then wiping his mouth. He didn’t waste any time getting to the station after that.

Wilbur’s eyes were dull as he sat down, starting to play. His fingers were sore and calloused, this guitar was all he had, the only thing for his enjoyment he didn’t give away. Trains rolled by, one after another, but Wilbur never stood up. Not yet. 

He wanted to die by the final train, which by the looks of it, would come at around four AM. He sighed at the schedule, not really wanting to wait that long- but he had a plan. He was going to fulfil it.

The sound of his guitar filled the room, and continued for hours and hours. People left money in an old bowl from some other person who left it there, figuring that's what he wanted, money- but it wasn’t. He didn’t complain, though. That would just be rude.

Odd looks and money were all he gained for playing, playing until four in the morning. The strumming finally stopped as Wilbur stood up, body sore from playing all day, not moving other than his arms. He was hungry.

The crinkled up note slipped between guitar strings, the guitar was laid on the bench, and Wilbur was about to drag himself over to the platform he’d have to get off of to reach the train- but then he heard footsteps coming. His head whipped up, scared it was a guard or someone who’d come to stop him-

But it wasn’t.

It was a teenage boy. Tall, lanky, blue eyes with blond hair… and a face full of bruises and a bloody nose. He was wearing khaki shorts and a dumb baseball tee. He made eye contact with the brunette and walked over, smiling despite the dullness in his eyes.

“Hello!”

“Oh, uhm… Hello,” Wilbur tried greeting the seemingly energetic boy. He made the taller one nervous.

“What are you doing out this late?”

“I was just… waiting for the train,” he answered, which wasn’t exactly a lie. 

The blond frowned, looking at Wilbur with suspicion. He wasn’t dumb. He was there for the same reason the older man was. To end the pain.

“Is that your guitar?”

Wilbur nodded.

“Can you play? Do you sing?”

Wilbur nodded again at the first question, then paused at the second. “I used to sing, before the pollution caught up with me. Now I just play.”

“Is that your money?” 

Wilbur picked up the bowl. “Yes. why?”

“Do you want it?”

That question made him pause again. He wasn’t sure if it was on purpose or not, but this kid knew exactly what made him squirm.

“Not really. I don’t need it. Why don’t you count it? You can have it.”

The kid looked up at Wilbur, wiping his bloody nose on his arm. “Yeah, I don’t need it either.”

The two shared a quiet, understanding silence. Within that silence, it was interrupted by the sound of the final train passing. Wilbur looked at it with longing and distress, fuck, that was supposed to be it. He felt sick now.

“What’s your name?” Wilbur finally asked, looking at the child. He knew. He purposely distracted Wilbur.

“Tommy.”

“I’m Wilbur… so, tell me, what are you doing out here?”

Tommy nudged over the guitar and sat down with a huff, putting his arms on the back of the bench. “You sure you wanna talk about that?”

“I have nothing but time.” Wilbur sat next to Tommy, watching the boy and how he flinched away. As he thought- definitely some sort of abuse, if he had to guess.

“My dad kicked my ass. I decided I wasn’t having it anymore and I was going to put a stop to it myself… I guess seeing someone else with the same idea, I dunno, brought me to my senses?”

Wilbur nodded.

“Well, I’m not leaving you to the fucker who did that to you. Come on.”

Tommy looked at Wilbur, “Wait, really? Is that even fuckin’ legal?”

“Who gives a shit? Get up, grab the money, let’s get the hell out of here.”

Tommy didn’t hesitate, getting up and grabbing the money as he was told to, following the taller man out of the station. The “fresh air” was as fresh as it’d ever get this early in the morning. Tommy breathed deeply, he felt like he never got any air, especially with the way his dad smoked.

Wilbur smiled down at the slightly shorter one, leading him to the apartment and letting him in. It was empty, almost…

“Don’t mind the papers. They’re just scrapped music.”

Tommy nodded as he made his way to the couch. The house smelled oddly of vanilla, not too strong of a scent, likely to not make the asthma Wilbur obviously had from the way he coughed act up.

He laid down, too tired, too angry to care that he’d just come into some random person's house. He just needed, wanted sleep so badly.

Wilbur brought the boy an old blanket and covered him up. “Sleep well, Tommy.”


	2. is nothing on my khaki coat that I got from a roadside when I was sixteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short chapter where Wilbur takes Tommy to get food.

“Wilbur?” 

“Huh?” Wilbur jerked up, looking over at the boy in front of him with wide eyes before remembering the night before. “Oh, yeah, hey Tommy.”

Tommy didn’t even hesitate, sitting on the bed before hugging Wilbur tightly. He had tears in his eyes- he was afraid. Wilbur didn’t have any clue of what to do other than hug the smaller boy back. He felt his hands against the child’s ribs. He felt how thin he was.

“Are you okay..?” Wilbur asked, not wanting to upset the boy further. Tommy shook his head, but didn’t speak, letting Wilbur know he’d rather not talk about it. Wilbur nodded, understanding this and just letting him calm down. 

Eventually, Tommy did end up opening up. 

“It was just a nightmare, but… i don’t know. It just upset me.”

Wilbur nodded. “Hey, uhm… Okay, why don’t you wait in the living room and we can use some of that spare money from yesterday? I can take us to get food!”

Tommy agreed, heading out to the living room. Wilbur noted that Tommy must’ve been awake for a while before deciding to wake him up, since the kid had cleaned the blood from his face. He looked at his crummy old alarm clock. It was noon.

Wilbur got dressed himself, a simple brown sweater and black skinny jeans. No other types of jeans fit him anymore, and even the skinny jeans were loose. But it was fine.

His thoughts started to drift and he shut the drawer, yelling in pain when his finger was slammed between the drawer and the dresser. “Fuck!”

He threw on another jacket over the sweater since he got cold so easily, heading out to the living room. He tilted his head at Tommy-- the kid was seemingly just staring into nothingness. It took him a few moments to realize that it was probably from his needless yelling. He hurried over to Tommy, hugging him and apologizing. He leaned on Wilbur, stuttering a soft, “I’m okay.”

Tommy’s voice was hoarse and scared, it was obvious he wasn’t okay. Wilbur nodded though, helping him up and leading him outside. Tommy shivered and followed Wilbur mindlessly.

“Where do you want to go?”

“Oh, uhm…” Tommy rubbed his eyes, forcing himself to focus, “I want to… I wanna go to McDonalds.”

Wilbur nodded, holding onto Tommy gently so he wouldn’t fall behind. The two walked on the sidewalk, Tommy not knowing this area too well. He just let Wilbur lead.

It took only about ten minutes for them to get there, but by that time Tommy was already shivering. Wilbur frowned, taking off his jacket and giving it to him. “There, is that better?”

Tommy froze a bit, before nodding. He wasn’t used to all this kindness, especially not in such a short amount of time. Either way, he accepted the jacket thankfully and put it on, coughing into the sleeve.

“What, are you claiming it as yours?”

Tommy rolled his eyes before shutting them again, tighter. He coughed harder and stopped walking, Wilbur stopping as well to rub his back. “Hey, hey, just breathe slowly… You’re gonna be okay, you’re not dying.”

Tommy couldn’t help how afraid he was despite Wilbur comforting him. He gripped onto Wilbur’s hand that wasn’t rubbing his back.

Slowly, Tommy calmed down and the coughing stopped. 

“Do you have an inhaler?” Wilbur asked, Tommy shaking his head. 

“Me either…”

The two were quiet for a few moments before Wilbur led Tommy into the restaurant. They both ordered something simple and inexpensive, then ate inside. Anything to stay out of that horrible, polluted air.

The silence between the two was painfully awkward. Tommy finally spoke up.

“So, do you do anything as work or just play that guitar?”

“I quit a while ago for obvious reasons, so yup.” Wilbur shrugged.

“How expensive is apartment rent?”

“Listen, I’ve got connections. For now at least. So we’re fine.”

Tommy narrowed his eyes and frowned, but nodded anyway. As long as they had a place to stay and enough food to eat, Tommy was happy.

Everything would be okay.

“So, Wilbur, why did you-”

A loud ringing played and admittedly, Wilbur screamed. He heard others scream as well in terror, watching people get up and run before it hit him- there was a fire. His first and only focus was getting Tommy out. It didn’t matter if he’d only known the boy for less than a few hours, he just needed to get him out of there.

He just needed to save the kid. At least he still had a chance at life.

He grabbed Tommy by the jacket, the fire was spreading fast, unnaturally fast, what the hell caused this fire?

Wilbur wasn’t near fast enough to reach the exit, the fire was going towards the exit like it was more frantic to escape than he was to save Tommy. Wilbur apologized to him, but Tommy was too busy coughing up a lung and being shoved towards the fire exit to notice-

Tommy was thrown onto the sidewalk outside the restaurant. Wilbur’s thick jacket prevented any scrapes, but he’d surely be bruised.

Wilbur heard creaking, creaking; it was coming from the roof. He looked up in horror, mind too in shock for him to have the mind to run-

He heard a loud crack, and then saw the ceiling collapse. Then a bright, greyish white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the support!! I have a discord server you can join for updates on my stories, share your art, etc!  
> mod applications coming soon!
> 
> https://discord.gg/yH2nb7Q9Jr


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